Chapter 36: The Beginning of the End
As Sayer fell, six people burst onto the roof of the Arcadia Movement. Toby, Yuina and Rebecca saw that they were Yusei, Jack, Crow, Akiza, Luna and Leo. The tornadoes were also dissipating at a rapid rate, and Sayer was heavily burned. "What's going on here?" Yusei demanded.
"Sayer here stole our cards and we needed to Duel him to get them back, Yusei-chan," Rebecca explained.
Just that moment, Sayer stood up and inserted his WIND Blessing Card into the one remaining slot on the Hexagon Duel Disk, whereupon the sphere in its center shot a black light up towards the sky.
"What have you done!" Toby yelled.
"Finished the job," Sayer yelled. "Finally, our mission is complete!"
"We beat you!"
"I have summoned my Herald and used it to tear away the last of the barrier, and with the activation of all six empowered Blessing Cards, the return of what lies beyond is imminent!"
"We will fight it! We came this far!"
Right then, Sayer started screaming as a white aura engulfed him. When the nine other people there caught sight of his eyes, they saw them completely white. He grabbed his Deck and threw its contents on the roof of the building.
"Does that mean you're too scared to Duel us again?" Yuina taunted.
"We have never Dueled," Sayer spoke, in a surprisingly monotone voice.
"Don't bullshit us, we just finished a Duel with you!"
"We have never Dueled. You only Dueled the human which I now inhabit."
"Just who are you?" Toby asked.
"I have no need for something as immaterial as a name. If you want to assign some title to me to make your mind feel at ease, you may call me the Harbinger."
"Why Harbinger?"
"It is what your newborn minds will inevitably come to understand by my existence."
"I guess you heard what we said to Sayer. We will not let you do as you please with this world!"
"Your struggles to do so will do you no good."
"But if you are here, does that mean the Barrier is destroyed?"
"Not completely, too vast an amount of resources would be required to do that from the inside. It is severely weakened, and this human's actions have created a breach in the Barrier that we can enter through."
"Then that means we can still fight you!" Rebecca shouted.
"Yes, you can still fight me," Sayer droned, after which the Hexagon Duel Disk broke up into seven components. Six of them hovered above Sayer and slowly ejected the Blessing Cards, which began to change into new Monster Cards with different illustrations. The seventh, the sphere of the Disk, shot into the sky. The cards landed in the empty Disk slot, when a white light appeared and vanished to reveal a new Deck in its place. "The Dimensions are only fractured enough that I can enter, but one entry is all that is required to destroy more of the Barrier and allow the truth to flow into this universe."
"We won't let you do it."
"Like I have just said, it has already started. The most you can do is act as levees against the flood. You can form teams of three against me and, when your Life Points reach 0, I will allow someone to replace you."
"Why would you do that? It isn't even part of the game," Luna inquired.
"Because it is a game no longer. If a Substitution happens, the turn will move to the End Phase, and the new player will start with a standard hand and Life Point count. They will inherit the fallen one's cards, and in addition, I cannot attack that player until after their next Standby Phase. However, no more people may Substitute than those who are already up here."
"Luna!" a voice echoed from her Duel Disk, with Ancient Fairy Dragon appearing behind her. "If that… abomination… is allowed to win, neither of our worlds will survive! Its energies are already destroying the Spirit World"
"I cannot let you get away with that, Sayer!" Luna roared.
"Very well, you will be one of the first to face me, and thus will draw the first card of your team."
"As will I. I've been fighting you from day one!" Toby declared.
"Opponent number two, and the successor of the first opponent's turn."
"Hey, Toby, hope you don't mind, but I'm accompanying you on this date of yours!" Rebecca announced. "I'm fighting as well."
"Opponent number three."
"So what's your handicap?"
"None, save that I take the first turn." Sayer's Duel Disk then reactivated, as did Rebeccca's and Toby's, with Luna activating hers as well.
"Duel!" all four of them shouted.
Sayer, with the blank look in his eyes, drew first. He activated the Field Spell Dimensional Fracturing, which when played, received one Fracture Counter. With that, a large crack appeared in the sky, with rays of darkness spilling forth. He also activated the Continuous Spell Card Horror's Life Force. A hexagonal clock appeared, and there were six hands, one pointing at each corner. He ended his turn, with four cards in hand.
"What? No monsters?" Luna asked.
"Don't underestimate that tactic!" Toby warned. "Just because his field is empty doesn't mean he is defenseless! None of us can attack during the first round, so Sayer knows he has nothing to fear."
"O-okay. My turn, draw!"
Another massive crack appeared in the sky, again with rays of darkness spilling out. "Every Standby Phase," Sayer droned, "Dimensional Fracturing gains another counter. There are other ways for it to crack as well."
She activated the Spell Card Cost Down, discarding a card to reduce the Level of her monsters in her hand by 2 to summon without Tributes, choosing Fairy King Truesdale (2200/1500). She then activated the Field Spell Card Ancient Forest, intending to replace Sayer's Field Spell, but another effect of Dimensional Fracturing activated then: if the card had a Fracture Counter, it could add another one if it was due to be destroyed and negate its destruction. Since it remained, Ancient Forest got destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, and another massive crack appeared in the sky. She ended her turn with two cards in her hand.
Toby drew, after which the Field Spell Card received a fourth Fracture Counter and another crack appeared in the sky. He placed three cards face-down to end his turn, three cards in hand. Rebecca drew, and a fifth Fracture Counter was added. She set one card and one monster face-down, after which she used Polymerization to fuse her Maiden in Love and Succubus Knight together to form Succubus Temptress (2000/1500). A sixth Fracture Counter appeared.
"Why?" Rebecca asked.
"If any player Special Summons monsters to the field, by card effect, Fusion, Ritual or Synchro summoning, it will fuel the fracturing of the dimensions," Sayer droned. Rebecca ended her turn, with one card in her hand, one monster face-down and one card face-down.
Sayer drew to hold five cards, whereupon a seventh Fracture Counter appeared. He activated the Spell Card Graceful Charity to draw three cards and discard two, then he played the Continuous Spell Card Veil of Chaos: Light. With it, he could activate any Spell Cards in his Graveyard, with the only condition that subsequent activations of that same card could only occur after the following Standby Phase. He used his Veil to activate Graceful Charity again, but with one drawback: with the Veil in play, whenever he drew cards by effects, he drew one less card, leaving him to draw and discard two cards. His turn ended with a face-down card.
"Why did he just throw two cards from his own Deck away?" Leo queried.
"It has to be some form of trap!" Toby announced.
"And still no monsters. He's leaving himself wide open!"
"That only makes it clearer that Sayer's set a trap! Be careful, Luna!"
Luna drew, with the Fracture Counters reaching eight. She summoned her Sunny Pixie (300/400) and tuned her Level 6 Fairy King Truesdale with the new Tuner, shouting "The holy light of protection , shine now and become eternal life" to Synchro Summon her Ancient Fairy Dragon (2100/3000), after which a ninth Fracture Counter appeared. She attempted to use her Dragon's effect to destroy the Field Spell, but as the cries echoed from her new dragon's mouth, the only thing to happen was the sky fracturing even more. Another Fracture counter was added, but Luna was allowed to recover 1000 of her Life Points per her dragon's effect to come to 5000. She attacked Sayer directly with its Eternal Sunshine attack, but that was when an ability activated: a tentacle burst out from underneath the dragon, ensnaring it.
"What happened?" Luna shouted.
"It is the effect of the Greater Horror: The Lurking Tendrils. When it is in the Graveyard, it can negate an enemy attack and end that Battle Phase, although it cannot activate this effect a second time until my next Standby Phase."
"I knew it!" Toby hissed.
Luna placed one card face-down to end her turn, leaving one card in her hand.
Toby drew, and the Fracture Counters reached eleven, but couldn't do anything, so he ended his turn with four cards in hand and three face-down. Rebecca drew, with the Fracture Counters reaching twelve. She placed a card face-down and then attacked directly with her Succubus Temptress. Sayer revealed another card: the Continuous Trap Veil of Chaos: Dark, which allowed him to activate any Traps from his Graveyard, yet subsequent activations couldn't occur until after his next Standby Phase. He activated his discarded Negate Attack this way, stopping the Succubus from inflicting any damage. With nothing more to do, she had to end her turn, with one card in hand and two on the field. One thing all three facing Sayer noticed was that the black and white shrouds around each of the Veils were sparking electricity to the other.
Sayer's turn added a thirteenth Fracture Counter to his Field Spell, with the sky cracking even more. However, he didn't draw, as his Veil of Chaos: Dark forced him to draw one less card during his Draw Phase, even if it meant he didn't draw at all. He summoned his Level 4 Herald of Horrors (2000/2000) and activated its effect; by discarding a monster from his hand, he could retrieve a Divine-Beast-type from his Deck of the same Attribute. He sent the Star Glyph Tablet – Words of Guidance to the Graveyard, whereupon the tablet appeared by itself above the white-robed herald. It assembled the other five sections and became the white tablet.
"I will now remove ten Fracture Counters to Special Summon a Divine-Beast-type monster from my Deck. The words on the Glyph Tablet herald the rise of the original sovereign, who will return to take his throne. I Special Summon the Grand Horror: The Yellow-Robed King!"
The cracks opened to reveal a large, hulking creature in a yellow robe, with two arms and a covered head. It came with 3000 Attack and Defense points, but it also came with what Sayer called were five Doom Counters.
"This summon does not add a Fracture counter, so the number has been reduced to 3. However, The Yellow-Robed King will now attack the one called Toby directly: Grand End: Death Sentence!" The creature raised its arm to its opposite shoulder, and then slashed the air horizontally with that hand as if waving off someone. From that slash, a massive gale soared towards Toby that, in his mind, would have probably put most hurricanes to shame
Toby activated his face-down Back Attack Ambush, negating the attack and Special Summoning Ambush Tokens to his field equal to the number of monsters on Sayer's. As the Tokens appeared, Lorna materialised, and used her energy to deflect most of the winds away from the Arcadia Movement, where they proceeded to crash into and disintegrate several nearby buildings. Rebecca revealed a Trap of her own: Nightmare Archfiends. She Tributed her face-down monster to Special Summon three Nightmare Archfiend Tokens (2000/2000) to Sayer's field, thus allowing Toby to get five Ambush Tokens. He Tributed them all to deal 2500 damage to Sayer, leaving him on 1500 Life Points. He ended with three cards in his hand. Unfortunately, the eight Special Summons during the turn resulted in the sky cracking even more, with eight Fracture Counters to come to 11.
Luna drew, gaining Fracture Counter number twelve. Her first card was the Spell Card Healing Wind, causing her to regain 200 Life Points for each monster on the field. She had her Ancient Fairy Dragon, Rebecca had her Succubus Temptress, while Sayer had three Nightmare Archfiend Tokens, a Herald of Horrors and a Grand Horror: The Yellow-Robed King, which allowed her 1400 Life Points to come to 6400. Following that, she played a Card of Sanctity, allowing everyone to draw until holding six cards, and then equipped Ancient Fairy Dragon with the Spell Card Pain to Power and summoning a Petit Angel (600/900).
"Battle!" she declared. "Petit Angel attacks The Yellow Robed King!"
"Have you gone mad?!" Rebecca yelled. "That thing's way out of your monster's league!"
"Grand Horror: The Yellow-Robed King counterattacks Petit Angel," Sayer declared, as the giant monster simply swatted Luna's away, creating another massive gust of wind that, although Lorna managed to mostly deflect, still blasted the twin backwards and dealt 2400 damage to leave her on 4000 Life Points.
"Pain to Power's… effect… activates! The damage… dealt… to me… becomes… attack points… for Ancient… Fairy Dragon!" As Luna got back up, her dragon increased its ATK to 4500. "Battle… Ancient Fairy… attack The Yellow-Robed King… Eternal Sunshine!"
The dragon quickly soared up to the Grand Horror, and its wings released an explosion of blindingly bright light that seemed to burn away at the garments. Sayer's 1500 remaining Life Points were depleted on the spot, but as the smoke cleared, he seemed unfazed by the attack. Worse still, the Grand Horror was still alive!
"H-how?" Luna gasped.
"Grand Horror: The Yellow-Robed King has a special ability. When you try to strike it down, you instead bring forth its true power. Although I have suffered Battle Damage, I needed merely remove a Doom Counter to not only preserve it, but increase its ATK by 3000 until the end of this turn for every remaining Doom Counter it has," Sayer announced, as the monster was now at 15000 ATK.
"But your Life Points are… gone. It should have vanished!"
"Incorrect. I activate the effect of Horror's Life Force." Sayer's body suddenly fell down, while a green gem appeared on the upward-facing hand of the clock. Above him, another yellow-robed entity started forming, with hands, arms, a torso and a hooded head appearing. The cards on Sayer's Duel Disk vanished, reappearing in midair on a large staff with a purple gem. The Deck itself spawned in the hollowed-out core of the headpiece gem, while the rest of the cards were balanced on the shaft. This new entity appeared, with 4000 Life Points.